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What is the best adaptation of Hamlet? I must confess that I liked the Mel Gibson version, even though most people don't seem to love that one. What do you all think?

I confess that I too enjoyed Gibson's Hamlet, though I still love the 1948 Olivier version.  In my opinion, there was no finer Shakespearean actor than Olivier in the twentieth century.  Check out the link below to learn more about this adaptation:

 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0040416/

my  favorite adaptation is kenneth branagh's hamlet set in the 19th c. at blenheim palace.

Hey, anybody see the Simpson's version of Hamlet? Really funny!

I LOVE this!  Here's a link to the whole segment:

http://www.milkandcookies.com/link/54549/detail/

Loved the Mel Gibson version for the period look to the film, but loved Branagh's version for having the entire play in it - who wouldn't love listening to 4 hours of Shakespeare (I'm serious...are there really people out there who wouldn't love that?!??!)???? :)

The best way to enjoy Hamlet or any other Shakespeare play is by listening to it on CD.  Next is watching any of the BBC DVDs.

All the Hamlet movies are fine and all of them lose some aspect of the play's power by their choices in how to present it.

Gibson's  version moves along quickly and is more physical, Branagh's is complete but often tedious, with self-indulgent star casting, (e.g., Jack Lemmon!), Olivier's is about Olivier as much as it is about Hamlet, Derek Jacobi's version is correct to the point of being dull.

The last act is strange indeed: Hamlet doesn't refer to his father's murder at all and when he finally acts it's to avenge his mother's accidental poisoning and his and Laertes' poisonings. He makes an ambiguous remark about his father's death but nothing more explicit. He returned from his capture by pirates as an existential man to whom nothing much mattered; the readiness was all. 

If you must, read Shakespeare, but not before a) listening with no visual clues and/or seeing performances live or on screen. 

P.S. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead is a great funny  movie and even more so for Hamlet-lovers.  It's by Tom Stoppard, who's responsible for much of the fun in "Shakespeare in Love".

I like to do different things with the different versions. Here's some of what I do:

1. Regarding Gibson's version, I not only like the actors/actresses (Glenn Close plays crazy exceptionally well), the treatment of light and dark is handled very well, and the "To be" soliloquy is stunning with the way the light hits his father's tomb.

2. Regarding Brannaugh (sp), it's just long, with some goofy actor choices, but Claudius is great, and KB's Hamlet also does some fun things with black and white among the other colors

3. I then throw a curveball at the kids: I give a quiz where I play the same soliloquy from the Ethan Hawke Hamlet (he's in a Blockbuster looking at movie choices-Hamlet's a film student/director) and make students compare choices made.

Good fun all around...but I think if I ha to pick, I'd go with Gibson just for all of the crazyness that abounds, since I think the play itself is full of it.

David Becker